Darkened Skies: Side Stories
by Orangen
Summary: Based on Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers. A collection of various one-shots to fill in some things that could have happened off-screen. Will include things such as extra missions done by Team Shadow, random events at the Wigglytuff Guild, and scenes in the dark future.
1. Grimy Food

_Disclaimer_: PMD2 may not be mine, but this fic is.

_Author's Note_: This is basically going to be a bunch of stuff that wouldn't fit into my "main" PMD2 fic due to the POV-switching format I'm doing. You won't necessarily NEED to read both of them to understand either, though it may help. These also aren't going in any specific order, and this first one takes place during the initial Quicksand Cave exploration.

**Grimy Food**

"I'm so hungry…"

Iris the Machop groaned as her stomach growled. Team Shadow had gotten quite far into Quicksand Cave, and they were unfortunately low on supplies — including food.

Sighing, Claire — the human-turned-Meowth leading the team — dug through her treasure bag. She had two apples, three gummis, and a handful of used Reviver Seeds she'd forgotten to throw away. Hesitantly, she pulled out an apple and tossed it to her teammate. Iris cheered as she caught the apple, instantly devouring it.

"How much food do we have left, Claire?"

Felix, Claire's Chimchar partner, looked worried. He'd eaten the last gummi out of his own bag a few floors ago; clearly, he was anxious about having to rely on the desert's typical, barely-edible fares.

"Not much, but I think we'll be okay," Claire replied, checking her Wonder Map. "We've only got a few floors left!"

"Has anyone seen Rin, by the way?" Iris asked suddenly.

Claire hastily shoved her map back into her bag as she looked around. The Cubone in question was nowhere in sight; while she could certainly take care of herself, it was unlike her to wander off like that…

Fortunately, a few moments later, Rin appeared in the room, coming through the hallway the team had just exited. Unfortunately, though, the large pile of food she was holding looked rather unappetizing. She had an assortment mainly consisting of wilted berries, dried-up seeds, and a few squished gummis; however, she even had what looked like a moldy apple core.

"I found some food," she offered.

"How can you even think about eating that stuff?" Iris demanded over-dramatically.

Felix's eyes widened as he nodded in agreement. Although Claire shared his sentiments, she couldn't help giggling a bit at his expression. Rin, on the other hand, raised an eyebrow in response to Iris's question.

"I did grow up in the Northern Desert, you know," she replied. "I'm used to it."

"Well, you can eat all that, then," Iris huffed. "I'll stick to apples, thank you very much."

Rin merely shrugged, silently eating one of the wrinkled Oran Berries as Iris shuddered. Claire grinned, watching the two for a moment before beckoning to the full team.

"Come on, guys! We have to get to the Time Gear before Grovyle does."

With that, the team formed a line and started walking through the next hallway. Despite the mission at hand, Claire couldn't help getting distracted every time Rin ate some of her food, wondering exactly how much of it was done just to bother Iris…

* * *

_Author's Note x2_: The only food in the desert levels is Grimy Food. How do the Pokémon there eat anything without making themselves sick? Solution: they are immune to all those bad side-effects. Also, Rin normally isn't that much of a troll, but Iris gets worked up very easily, so…


	2. Time In Between

_Author's Note_: I realized I made a bit of a continuity error in my main story by having Rin and Iris join Team Shadow the day after the Waterfall Cave exploration… That night, you're supposed to find out about the expedition, and the day after, you're supposed to meet Team Skull. Oops.

**Time In Between**

"Team Shadow, the Guildmaster would like to see you in his quarters."

Chatot poked his head into the new recruits' bedroom, beckoning to them with his wing. Claire looked up in surprise; it was fairly late, and Chatot was known for sending the apprentices to bed as early as possible… Still, she wouldn't argue with him, and she and Felix stood up obediently.

"Us too?"

Iris started grumbling, and Rin gave Chatot a confused look. The two of them had just joined the team that day, after all. In response, he merely sighed and waved his wing dismissively.

"He asked for all of you," he replied. Then, he added under his breath, "Though I'm not sure why either."

"Hey!"

Iris protested, apparently fully awake now; nevertheless, she and Rin followed Claire and Felix. When the quartet arrived in front of Wigglytuff's room, Chatot peered through the cracked door.

"They're here, Guildmaster," he called.

Chatot proceeded to usher the team inside. For a few moments, Wigglytuff merely spun around in circles, juggling a Perfect Apple. Then, he finally noticed Team Shadow, abruptly stopped spinning, and grinned as he set his apple down.

"Hiya!" he said cheerfully. "You've been doing good work lately, friendly-friends, so we've got something important to tell you. We're going to be going on an expedition soon!"

"An expedition?" Felix repeated apprehensively. "What's that mean?"

"We take an official trip out for a few days to explore somewhere, looking for treasure and other such things," Chatot explained. "We would usually never, _ever_ consider taking rookies such as yourselves or Team Lightning, but…"

"We're considering putting you on the list anyway! You've been doing that well," Wigglytuff finished excitedly.

"We get to explore for treasure?" Felix's eyes were practically sparkling.

"That does sound really fun, huh?" Claire grinned.

"We get to come too, right?" Iris demanded, causing Rin to give her a warning look.

"Absolutely not—" Chatot started indignantly.

"Of course, as long as you can do good work along with Meowth and Chimchar!" Wigglytuff interrupted him again. "Since you're a part of Team Shadow, you're my friendly-friends, too!"

Chatot covered his face with a wing and sighed as Iris cheered and Rin smiled tentatively.

A moment later, Wigglytuff leaned down to pick up his apple again, grinning before propping it on his head. He waved quickly to Team Shadow before he started spinning around.

"Well, that's all we needed to tell you! Good night, friends!"

Chatot had an exasperated look on his face as he led them out of the room and closed the door. For a few seconds, the four stood there in silence before things started to settle in.

"They think we're doing that well already?" Claire threw her paws in the air.

"This kind of thing is exactly why I wanted to join the guild!" Felix added, smiling contentedly. "Oh, I hope we get put on the list…"

"And we might get to go, too!"

Iris picked up Rin, much to the Cubone's chagrin, and spun around while holding Rin over her head. When she was set down, Rin wobbled dizzily for a few steps, and Claire couldn't resist giggling.

"All right, everyone," she said after catching her breath. "We need to go get some sleep so we can do a good job tomorrow!"

The three others nodded eagerly and followed Claire back to their bedroom.

* * *

"_Smiles go for miles_!"

"Okay, recruits! Now get to work!"

The apprentices scattered after the cheers the next morning, immediately getting to their usual job posts. Team Shadow hurried up the ladder to the second floor, promptly going over to the job bulletin board. After Felix climbed up the ladder, however, he froze in horror.

"I-it's them!" he stammered.

Following his line of sight, Claire noticed a rather familiar-looking pair hovering near the board. A Zubat and a Koffing were examining the job notices rather disinterestedly. It took a moment, but Claire finally remembered seeing them on the beach shortly after she'd woken up. Felix had seemed plenty uncomfortable around them then, too.

"All right. Let's go look at the outlaw board instead, and maybe they won't notice us," she replied.

Felix nodded and started to turn around. Before he could go too far, however, he winced; Iris had just started asking him something, using her normal tone of voice… which happened to be quite loud.

"Hey, who are those two?"

Iris pointed towards the pair as Felix tried to slink backwards. Naturally, they caught the question, and turned towards Iris. A moment later, they spotted Felix, and Zubat and Koffing both smirked.

"Oh, us?" Zubat smirked. "We're Team Skull… and we're good friends with that kid over there."

She waved a wing absently at Felix, who cringed again. Koffing chuckled, adding to the conversation after a few seconds.

"You don't have a problem with an exploration team checking out the job boards, do you?"

"N-no… but…" Felix mumbled.

"Now that I think about it… What are _you_ doing here?"

Zubat's tone of voice indicated that she'd probably be rolling her eyes if she'd had them. Koffing chuckled again, and Felix suddenly had a determined look on his face.

"We're an exploration team, too!"

He stepped forward, and Claire and Rin both put a hand on his shoulders in concern. Not a moment later, Koffing and Zubat exchanged glances and swiftly pushed Felix away from his teammates. All of them — even Iris — had surprised looks on their faces, and Felix sputtered out objections.

"Are you serious, kid?" Koffing rolled his eyes.

"I really don't think you're cut out for this," Zubat added. "We know you scare easily—"

Felix shoved past them and managed to muster up a surprisingly fierce glare.

"Oh yeah? W-well, Claire beat you guys easily last time!"

Zubat scowled. "Well, that's just because our boss wasn't there."

"Oh, really?" Iris cut in. "How good is your boss, huh? _We're_ so awesome that the guild is probably going to take us on the expedition they're going on soon!"

"Our boss could knock you all flat in _seconds_," Koffing answered smugly. After a short pause, he looked from side to side abruptly, and then lit up. "Speaking of him, I think he's coming now…"

Iris's eyes suddenly widened as Rin, Felix, and Claire looked around in confusion. Then, she promptly started shoving them towards the Outlaw Board on the opposite side of the room.

"What are you doing?" Claire queried.

"I recognize that smell," Iris hissed. "That's a Skuntank! I wouldn't go near one of those ever again with a lifetime supply of Pecha Scarves."

"What smell?" Felix asked, and at the same time Claire said to Rin, "Do I want to know this story?"

Rin rapidly shook her head. Meanwhile, Iris seemed rather fixated on the ladder that went up to the entry foyer, and she was grumbling under her breath. Sure enough, a few seconds later, a Skuntank was entering the room.

He approached Zubat and Koffing, and the two of them kept shooting glances over at Team Shadow. Sunflora, Bidoof, and Corphish had all been standing over near the Outlaw Board as well, and they were all looking rather confused at this development. Not that Claire blamed them; she couldn't help wondering what, exactly, Zubat and Koffing were telling Skuntank.

Several minutes later, Skuntank roughly pulled a job notice off the board, and Zubat and Koffing followed him out. Felix breathed a sigh in relief as he watched them leave, and he and Claire started walking back towards the bulletin board.

"Well, I guess we can get to work now—" she started, grinning, but then she stopped dead in her tracks. "What _is_ that?"

Felix's hands flew to his nose as Claire started coughing. They promptly turned around, only to see Iris looking smug.

"I told you Skuntank would smell bad. You want to stick to this side today?"

"Yes," Claire replied, nodding rapidly as her eyes started watering. "Let's."

As she scanned the outlaw postings, Claire couldn't help but be glad she at least hadn't been over on the other side of the room at the same time as Skuntank had…

* * *

_Author's Note x2_: Okay, maybe nothing too "exciting" happens in this chapter, but hey, I need to correct any mistakes when I catch them… Oh, and while I mentioned this in my main story, in my mind Zubat is female because there are very few female side-characters in PMD2. Also, in my version of events, Skuntank did not gas the hero, because I find a lot of Team Skull's antics to jar really badly with the otherwise serious plot of the game and Iris in general is enough ridiculousness for one story.


	3. The Sentries

_Author's Note_: In the main fic, there was a line originally meant as a throwaway joke that implied Rin was really awesome at sentry duty and that Iris was really terrible at it. I decided it would be funny to make a side story out of it, so here you go.

**The Sentries**

"Hey, Team Shadow? Can one of you take over sentry duty for me?"

Diglett had just popped out of the floor in front of the group of four, and he was currently looking over at the grate anxiously.

"Sure! Does your dad need you to keep up with the boards today?" Claire asked.

Diglett nodded, and Claire turned to look at her teammates. Rin and Iris looked a bit confused; they'd just joined recently, so they weren't quite sure how sentry duty worked.

"Hey, how about you give it a try, Iris?" Claire suggested. "Loudred will explain to you how it works. Since you've never done it before, you should see if you like it or not!"

"Okay, I guess…" Iris shrugged. "Fine with me!"

"Thanks, Machop!"

Diglett burrowed back underground as Iris strode over to Loudred. Claire waved to her as she, Rin, and Felix walked towards the ladder.

"We'll meet you in our room when we get back later! Good luck!"

"It can't be that hard, can it?"

Iris grinned as she watched her three friends walk away, unaware of what, exactly, she was getting herself into.

* * *

"Visitor detected!"

"Whose footprint?"

Iris squinted up at the grate above her. There were two paws shuffling back and forth, and they kind of looked brown… or tan, or yellow; it was hard to tell with the minimal lighting. The shuffling didn't help, either.

"…Raticate?"

"Nowhere CLOSE! It's Raichu!"

Iris rolled her eyes. One mistake wasn't that big of a deal, was it?

Another Pokémon stepped onto the grate after a few seconds, and Iris tilted her head to the side as she looked up at the feet. These were considerably larger, and somewhat claw-like… She frowned.

"You better bet taking so long because you're THINKING, Machop!"

"Um… Sceptile?"

"No, that's WRONG! It's a Charizard! URGH! What's next?"

"…Meganium?"

"Venusaur! That's THREE wrong now! You better get the NEXT ONE right!"

"Nidoking?"

"No, Nidoqueen!"

Iris groaned as Loudred ran up to let Nidoqueen in. The next Pokémon shuffled onto the grate the instant Nidoqueen stepped off, and fortunately, Iris had a few seconds before Loudred came back… Not that the extra time really helped her at all.

"The next visitor is Scyther!"

"WAY off! That's Blastoise! Who's next?"

"…Nidorina?"

"No, THIS ONE is a Nidoking!"

Iris scowled. This was going to be a very, very long day if this kept up…

* * *

When the final visitors were allowed into the guild, Iris all-too-eagerly scrambled out of the sentry tunnel. She was met by a very irritated Loudred and Chatot.

"You're TERRIBLE! What were you THINKING?" Loudred demanded.

Chatot squawked. "I came to see how things were going, and Loudred says you didn't identify a single footprint correctly all day!"

"Well, _sorry_," Iris replied, rolling her eyes again. "It's not like I've ever done this before—"

"And you aren't doing it ever again!"

Chatot fluttered away indignantly. Upon seeing Iris's scowl, Loudred doubled over in laughter.

"Well, maybe I don't want to do sentry duty ever again, anyway!" she shouted, and then stormed away towards her team's bedroom…

* * *

A few days later, Diglett once again approached Team Shadow for help with sentry duty. Rin volunteered quite willingly, much to Iris's shock. She listened attentively during Loudred's explanation, and then quickly climbed into the grate's tunnel.

Unsurprisingly, it wasn't too long before the day's first visitor arrived.

"Visitor detected!" Rin called.

"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?" Loudred shouted back.

Rin carefully looked up at the feet on the grate. She and Iris had traveled around a lot shortly before they'd joined the guild, and consequently, they'd met a lot of different kinds of Pokémon. While Iris was less attentive, Rin often noticed what kinds of footprints the Pokémon would leave when they'd part ways, perhaps due to Rin's tendency to hang back and observe rather than talk. Therefore, she was easily able to identify the Pokémon on the grate.

"The footprint is Roselia's!"

"Hey, that's RIGHT! Who's next?"

Rin smiled; she may have been quiet, but being praised still felt nice. She quickly looked back up at the grate, however, trying to keep herself on track.

"Luxio! The footprint is Luxio's!"

"GOOD! That's TWO now. Keep it up!"

"The next visitor is Prinplup!"

"That's RIGHT!"

Three so far, Rin counted. She hadn't expected herself to fail, but this was going much more smoothly than she'd anticipated… Perhaps Iris's performance had just made her anxious.

"Footprint detected! It's Flareon!"

"Right again! Can you get the NEXT one right, too?"

"The next visitor is a Kirlia! Oh — a Dusclops just stepped up too—"

"Good WORK! Keep them coming!"

* * *

At the end of the day, Rin wore a small smile as she climbed out of the sentry tunnel. It had been a busy day, but she'd done well. She was a bit surprised to see Chatot waiting with Loudred, but then again, Iris _had_ mentioned Chatot appraising her work…

"You did WELL today, Cubone!" Loudred congratulated.

"Yes, yes, much better than Machop, I hear!" Chatot nodded appraisingly. "You identified every visitor correctly. That is good work, indeed! Here's a small reward for you."

The Flying-Type had a small stack of items next to him, and he pushed them towards Rin with his wing. Rin felt her eyes widen when she examined her prizes; Chatot had given her a few coins, a Defense Scarf, a Heal Seed, and even a Reviver Seed!

"I hope YOU'LL do this again!" Loudred added.

"As do I."

Chatot gave her a pleased look before heading towards Wigglytuff's room. After Rin gathered up her rewards, she waved quietly towards Loudred and walked over to her team's room. Claire would definitely be happy to hear the good news…

* * *

_Author's Note x2_: As a bonus, this is also where Iris's infamous dislike for Chatot begins. He _can_ be a nice guy on occasion, though, as indicated by his praise for Rin…


	4. Report

_Author's Note_: I was going to work on some kind of back story for Team Lightning next, but then I remembered that I forgot about something Team Skull did again. In this case, that they show up right after you get to the Groudon statue. So once again we get a "correcting a mistake" chapter.

**Report**

"Hey, hey! Come on, Team Lightning!"

"We're hurrying!"

Corphish hurriedly waved a claw at the team of three as he started to scuttle back towards the base camp. Heliona the Vulpix was right behind him, though her two teammates, Sydney and Leon, were a bit behind them. They stopped suddenly, however, when they heard a familiar voice calling out…

"Chaw-haw! Where do you think you're going?"

Skuntank, Koffing, and Zubat had just arrived in the clearing, and Team Skull's leader was giving the group of four a rather disinterested look.

Corphish frowned. "We've got to get back to the base camp, hey, hey! Didn't you notice the fog lifted?"

"Of course we did," Zubat replied condescendingly. "You're all going to be good little recruits and tell Chatot, aren't you?"

"Why wouldn't you want to look for the treasure?" Koffing continued.

"Team Shadow already is!" Leon answered.

The Shinx was looking a bit nervous; not that anyone blamed him, what with how weird Team Skull was… It was a bit surprising that the normally-shy Leon was the one to say anything.

Skuntank was currently narrowing his eyes and looking towards the towering landmass past the Groudon statue. Team Shadow was just barely visible at its base for a few seconds before disappearing into the tiny cave entrance. He smirked and started lumbering towards them.

"Well, then, we'll just have to follow them," he said smugly. "They'll lead us right to the treasure, I bet!"

"Hey, hey! That's not fair!" Corphish scowled.

"You think we care?" Skuntank rolled his eyes. "Look, if you're going to get in our way, then—"

"Wait! Perfect Apple, wait for me!"

Before Skuntank could continue, a Perfect Apple tumbled towards them and landed right in the middle of the assembly. Sydney raised an eyebrow as Wigglytuff suddenly appeared, dashing after his beloved fruit. The guildmaster picked it up with a grin, and then looked up to see everyone.

"Oh, friendly friends! You're all here together!" he said cheerily.

"Y-yes, we are," Skuntank replied, forcing a grin.

Wigglytuff seemed to miss the Poison-Type casting an anxious look back over his shoulder. It was clear to everyone else that he was worried about Team Shadow beating him to the lake… And it was quite lucky that Wigglytuff had shown up right then, as anything that distracted Team Skull for long enough was welcome to everyone else.

"If you'll excuse us, Guildmaster, we need to go look for the lake," Skuntank went on.

"That's not necessary, friends! Corphish and Team Lightning here can do that!" Wigglytuff replied as he reached up and balanced his apple on his head.

"Actually, Guildmaster…" Sydney answered. "Team Shadow is already on their way to do that. They're the ones who found out how to lift the fog. We were just on our way to tell Chatot when we were _so lucky_ as to run into Team Skull here."

"Oh?" Wigglytuff answered curiously. "Is that right, Absol? You better go on and do that, then!"

Fortunately, Wigglytuff had seemed to missed the sarcasm in Sydney's last statement. Instead, he just nodded at him and kept grinning. With a sigh of relief, Team Lightning and Corphish turned back towards Foggy Forest.

"All right, Guildmaster!" Heliona shouted. "Here we go!"

As the four of them walked away, Corphish looked over his shoulder. Wigglytuff was now spinning around, Perfect Apple still balanced on his head, and Team Skull was giving him looks of disbelief.

"Hey, hey! We were pretty lucky, huh?" he said. "I thought for sure Skuntank was about to attack us."

"Probably," Sydney agreed. "Now we just have to hope we're lucky enough not to run into any trouble in the forest…"

"Don't say anything, Sydney! I'm not going to get us lost again." Heliona glared. "You don't think so, do you, Leon?"

"Uh… No," Leon replied nervously. "We'll be… just fine…"

"See? Now come on!"

With that, the four of them hurried through Foggy Forest, focused on getting back to the base camp.

* * *

"I reckon that was the wrong path, by golly…"

Bidoof frowned as he arrived back at the base camp. The trail he'd followed has just looped right back to where he started… He hoped he wasn't the only one to have made that mistake.

Unfortunately, the base camp was nearly deserted, indicating that all the other recruits had gone the right way. After a few seconds, Chatot fluttered up to him, looking hopeful.

"Oh? Bidoof! What do you have to report?" Chatot queried.

"I, uh…" Bidoof looked around nervously. "That is… Oof…"

"_Chatot_!"

Both Bidoof and Chatot jumped as Heliona's screech rang out, yet Bidoof was also a bit grateful for the interruption. She hurried up to Chatot as Corphish, Sydney, and Leon trailed after her.

"Ooh, you'll never believe what we found!" Heliona went on too quickly for Chatot to reply. "There was this weird statue and Team Shadow got rid of the fog and we figured out how to get to the lake and—"

"Slow down!" Chatot squawked. "You say that it's… Team Shadow who lifted the fog? Where are they now?"

"Oh, they went on ahead." Heliona grinned, her speaking speed now slightly back to normal. "So we came back to tell you."

"Well! This is certainly a useful report," Chatot said approvingly. "We should go search for the other recruits and let them know. Let's get going, everyone!"

"_Yes, sir_!"

The five apprentices followed after Chatot as he went into the forest, eager to get back to the clearing…

* * *

_Author's Note x2_: Again, another one that's not incredibly exciting, but still "necessary" to a degree… Maybe this will stop happening after I stop forgetting important details of the game…


	5. Crystal Clear

_Author's Note_: Been a while since I've done one of these, huh? I figured now would be as good a time as any to one of these that's at least partially in the future, and to alter a certain Dimensional Scream scene a bit to match with my version of events. Also, slight time paradox ahoy!

**Crystal Clear**

"So… What are we looking for this time?"

Michelle paused as she looked around her. Blitz was standing behind her, his head cocked to the side curiously, as she examined the area. The Persian's whiskers twitched idly as he waited for an answer.

The two of them were currently in an area that had once been known as Crystal Cave. Michelle had recently gotten a Dimensional Scream there, indicating that there _had_ been a Time Gear there at _some_ point… That was all she knew at the moment, though.

"We need to figure out how to get to the Time Gear," she explained.

Blitz nodded. "Right. Hm… Remember what happened when we were investigating the Time Gear in the desert?"

Michelle nodded in return. The last gear they'd found had been in a cave disguised by quicksand pools. It had taken quite a bit of searching after Michelle's initial Dimensional Scream to learn how, precisely, they were supposed to get past an apparent dead-end.

"You think there may be something like that here?"

"I do."

Quietly, Michelle took another look around. Several large crystals were jutting out of the ground in front of them, much larger than any of the others that had been scattered around the ruins. One of them was lying on the ground, with several shards suspended around it; clearly, it had hit the ground right when time had stopped in the area. Another one had a large split right down the middle, and the two halves jutted out in opposite directions.

Despite their current state, the crystals had a sense of importance to them. This was the deepest part of Crystal Cave's ruins that Michelle and Blitz had managed to reach, and having several giant crystals here had to mean _something_…

Michelle frowned as she walked forward, and she hesitantly reached out to touch one of the crystals. Apparently, Blitz realized what she was thinking, as he immediately strode over to her.

"Michelle?"

Before she could reply, a sudden flash of light and a sharp pain in her head cut her off. Michelle gasped as a Dimensional Scream started to form; she hadn't expected to pick something immediately. Unfortunately, this time she could only hear voices, but that was enough.

"_So… What are we supposed to do here?"_

"_Beats me. These crystals sure are mysterious, though!"_

"_I wonder if—whoa! It changed color?"_

"_Look! This one did too!"_

…

"_They all need to be blue!"_

"_Will that let us get to the lake?"_

"_Yeah! Let's do this!"_

…

"_Wah! Look out, Claire!"_

Michelle shook her head as the voices cleared, trying to re-focus her vision. She smiled afterwards, however. It was unfortunate that she hadn't actually _seen_ anything, but she had still gotten some very valuable information out of that vision.

"What did you learn?" Blitz prompted.

"The crystals are supposed to change color… Apparently, if they're all blue, that opens a passage to the lake."

"The… lake? Is that where the Time Gear is?"

"It should be. The one in the desert was in a lake, after all."

"Point taken," Blitz replied. "Would you like to go tell Celebi about this?"

"Yes." Michelle nodded. "I know stopping to tell her every time we learn something is part of the reason this is taking us so long, but…"

"It's fine. If it makes you feel safer to tell someone else, that's what we should do. Besides, you shouldn't try to do too much right now, anyway."

"Thank you, Blitz."

Michelle smiled, running a hand over Blitz's head, and the Persian purred as he turned to walk away. However, Michelle paused, resting her chin in her hand. What had that name been, again? And was it something she really _needed_ to remember?

"Oh, it was Claire," Michelle murmured a moment later, subconsciously rubbing her stomach. "What a lovely name."

"Michelle? Are you coming?"

Blitz was several feet ahead of her, and he was currently looking over his shoulder at her. After shaking herself, Michelle hurried to catch up to him.

"It was nothing. Let's go!"

* * *

"It should be just a little further… Look!"

Claire grinned as the tunnel widened out in front of her. She and the rest of Team Shadow hurried into the next chamber, and they all gasped collectively at the sight in front of them.

Nearly the entire wall was embedded with crystals, and three large ones rose sharply out of the ground in front of them. The chamber sparkled with light that the crystals reflected off each other; it was much more bright and colorful than any room in the rest of the cave.

"Wow," Felix breathed. "I can see why Bidoof wanted to take a crystal from here now…"

Rin nodded. "True… but… this seems to be a dead end."

"It's the deepest part can reach, though," Claire pointed out, checking her Wonder Map again. "I don't see anything else on the map…"

"So… What are we supposed to do here?" Rin wondered.

"Beats me." Iris shrugged. "These crystals sure are mysterious, though!"

That was true, Claire mused. The crystals did seem important… As if on cue, Felix curiously touched the one closest to them.

"I wonder if…"

He yelped and jumped backwards in surprise as the crystal suddenly started to spark. Claire quickly caught Felix as he stumbled towards her, and he caught his breath as the crystal returned to normal. Well, _almost_ normal…

"Whoa! It changed color?"

Felix's eyes were nearly bugging out of his head as he spoke again. The crystal had been a bright orange-yellow before, and now it was green. Iris promptly ran up to another crystal — with Rin sighing at her impatience — and tried touching it.

"Look! This one did too!"

After a few seconds, that crystal had changed colors as well, from purple to red. Iris, Felix, and Rin gave each other bewildered looks as they started talking amongst themselves, but Claire wasn't paying much attention for once. Now that she knew that the crystals did something important, she hoped that she could get a Dimensional Scream from them.

Claire rested a paw on one of the crystals, and she was surprised when she almost instantly got a Dimensional Scream. Much like the time at Fogbound Lake, she only heard voices, but there was something a bit different about them…

"_The crystals are supposed to change color… Apparently, if they're all blue, that opens a passage to the lake."_

"_The… lake? Is that where the Time Gear is?"_

"_It should be."_

Claire blinked a few times as the Dimensional Scream faded away. The voices belonged to different people — or Pokémon — than the ones she'd heard last time, but they still sounded so familiar… Had she known the voices' owners before?

Either way, she now knew what she needed to do. Claire turned to her teammates, who were still talking and looking confused. They looked up in surprise when Claire hurried over to them.

"Did you get an idea?" Felix asked.

Claire nodded and gestured excitedly at the crystals. "They all need to be blue!"

"Will that let us get to the lake?" Rin went on.

"Yeah! Let's do this!"

Felix hurried back to the crystal he'd touched earlier; after he tapped it a few times, it became dark blue. Rin and Iris turned to the one in the back as Claire walked back to the crystal she'd just used. When all three were the same color, a deep rumbling sound echoed throughout the chamber as the ground started to shake.

"Wah! Look out, Claire!"

Felix grabbed Claire's arm as she started backing up, and Rin and Iris scampered towards them. A bright flash of light erupted from the crystals, and when it died down, there was a large, jutting opening in the middle of the room. It was, unsurprisingly, surrounded by more crystals, with the three changing crystals merging into it.

"It worked!" Iris cheered. "Now, come on — I bet we need to hurry!"

Everyone nodded as they headed towards the new entrance. Now all they had to do was hope that Grovyle hadn't reach Uxie yet…

* * *

_Author's Note x2_: In case it wasn't clear, the first part takes place very shortly before Claire and her brother are born, and Michelle is pregnant. Claire's naming ended up being a bit like _Back to the Future._..


End file.
